Former Playford Council chief Mal Hemmerling launches defamation action against former mayor Marilyn Baker
Playford Council is involved in yet another legal dispute, with former chief executive Mal Hemmerling launching defamation action against former long serving mayor Marilyn Baker.
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A new legal dispute has erupted at Playford Council, with former highly paid chief executive Mal Hemmerling launching defamation action against former long-serving mayor Marilyn Baker.
Mr Hemmerling and another former Playford manager, James Pollock, have issued Mrs Baker with a concerns notice over a social media comment about a $8.5 million council-owned carpark which has become a financial white elephant.
The pair’s lawyer, Greg Griffin, said the pair had taken offence at the comment and wanted Mrs Baker — the council’s current deputy mayor — to pay for defending herself against their defamation claim, not ratepayers.
Mr Griffin said Mr Hemmerling believed Playford ratepayers already had spent too much on legal costs related to his termination of his $380,000-a-year contract by the council in late 2018 which led to an unfair dismissal claim.
“We have written to Playford Council chief executive Sam Green and told him that Mr Hemmerling does not want ratepayers to spend any more money on legal fees and that Mrs Baker must fund any costs which are incurred,” he said.
“Ratepayers would be aware that a separate defamation matter was agitated by Mr Hemmerling against her but that was resolved as part of the overall confidential settlement Dreached with council.”
The latest dispute centres on a six-storey carpark which was built at Elizabeth as part of a strategy by Mr Hemmerling and Mayor Glenn Docherty to revitalise the northern suburbs through large capital projects.
The structure was originally intended to be built as the third stage of a redevelopment of the Elizabeth CBD which also included a luxury hotel, medical centre, ice arena, government office building and retirees’ community centre.
Council instead decided to build the carpark first, with the medical centre, ice arena and government building later being either shelved or abandoned.
The cancellation or postponement of the other projects has left the carpark largely empty on most days, with a recent staff report revealing it had made $1884 in the past two years.
In their defamation claim, Mr Hemmerling and Mr Pollock are alleging Mrs Baker made a derogatory comment on a Facebook page run by a mayoral aspirant, Shaun Reardon, about reports they prepared on the CBD projects while they were at Playford.
The pair established a private consultancy with another former council employee, Vanessa Wilson, when they left the council.
Playford Council, Mrs Baker and Mr Reardon declined to comment.